Mole Sauce

• servings: 8 servings
• active time: 15 minutes
• total time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 whole raw chicken (, cut into pieces, or 4-5 chicken leg quarters, bone in, skin on)

8 cups water (1.9 liters or half gallon)

¼ onion (, roughly chopped)

3 cloves garlic

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 Tablespoon chicken bouillon (,, powder or paste)

6 dried pasilla chiles

6 dried mulato chiles or guajillo chilies

5 dried ancho chiles

1/2 cup sesame seeds (71g, divided)

1/4 cup raw almonds (36g)

1/4 cup raw shelled peanuts (36g)

1/4 cup raisins (37g)

½ cup animal crackers (60g)

1 corn tortilla

2 slices white bread (, French bread or a small bolillo roll cut in half)

1/2 of a white onion (, sliced)

4 cloves garlic

5 whole cloves

5 whole black peppercorns

1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds

1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds

1/4 teaspoon whole aniseed

¼ -1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1 ripe plantain (or banana) (, peeled, sliced into ½ inch slices)

1 teaspoon Dried oregano

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 ½ teaspoons chicken bouillon paste

Salt to taste

2 ounces chopped Mexican chocolate (,, or semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate)

1-4 Tablespoons brown sugar (, taste)

Reserved broth from cooking the chicken

2 Tablespoons oil or lard

Oil (, for frying)

Directions

Cook Chicken: Add chicken, garlic, onion, bay leaf, chicken bouillon, salt, oregano and water to pot. Bring to a low boil and cook over medium heat until chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate, (reserving the broth) cover to keep it warm and set aside.

For the Mole Sauce:

Toast sesame seeds in a large dry skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, until toasted. Be careful not to burn them. Set aside.

Add 2 cups of water to a large saucepan over medium-low heat. (You will transfer toasted ingredients to this post, as you toast them.)

Toast Chiles: Use scissors to cut a line down all the chilies to open them up flat. Remove veins and seeds. Add a few tablespoons of oil to the skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add chiles in a single layer, frying on both sides for just a few seconds, careful not to burn them. Transfer them to saucepan of water.

Pan fry ingredients: We will pan fry most of the remaining ingredients, one at a time, so add a little oil between each batch, as needed, to coat the bottom of the pan.

Fry the peanuts stirring often so they toast but don’t burn, about 45 seconds. Add to the pot. Repeat with almonds, then raisins, then animal crackers, then corn tortilla, and bread slices, adding each to the saucepan and pressing down as much as possible into the water.

Turn skillet heat to medium-high and add more oil if needed to coat the bottom of the pan. Add onion and fry for 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and fry for just a few seconds before spooning the onion and garlic into the pot. Add sliced plantain to the hot oil and fry on both sides, then add to the pot.

Reduce heat to medium and add peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, anise, and crushed red pepper to hot oil and fry for a few seconds, stirring constantly, then add to the pot.

To the saucepan with all of the ingredients, stir in 1 teaspoon oregano, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 ½ teaspoons chicken bouillon.

Blend: Working in batches, add everything from the pot with the chilies to a blender and add enough of the reserved chicken broth to allow the mixture to blend. During one of the blending batches, add ¼ cup of reserved toasted sesame seeds. Blend each batch for several minutes, until completely smooth, adding more chicken broth if needed.

Heat 2 tablespoons lard or oil to a large saucepan. Once melted, remove from heat and set aside.

Strain: Pour sauce through a fine mesh strainer (discarding what’s leftover in the strainer) into the pot with the melted lard.

Melt chocolate: Add the chopped chocolate to a bowl and pour some of the chicken broth into it, to help it melt. Add to pot, along with 1 Tablespoon brown sugar, to start, then more to taste, as needed.

Cook mole sauce over medium-low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring often. If the mixture is too thick, add more chicken broth (I usually end up using all of the remaining chicken broth). Taste and add salt or sugar, as needed.

Serve: Place chicken on a plate and ladle a big spoonful of sauce on top. Garnish with sesame seeds. Serve with Mexican rice and warm corn tortillas on the side.

Nutrition

• Calories: 552 kcal
• Total Fat: 33 g
• Saturated Fat: 7 g
• Unsaturated Fat: 23 g
• Trans Fat: 0.1 g
• Cholesterol: 72 mg
• Sodium: 1001 mg
• Total Carbohydrate: 43 g
• Dietary Fiber: 12 g
• Total Sugars: 17 g
• Protein: 27 g